It Takes More Than A Produce Aisle To Refresh A Food Desert

Euclid Market, a corner store in East Los Angeles, recently got a makeover to promote healthier eating. It not only sells more fruits and vegetables, but also offers cooking classes and nutrition education.

Public health researcher Alex Ortega heads a UCLA project that aims to increase the demand for healthy food in low-income neighborhoods.

Margaret Molloy/UCLA Fielding School of Public Health

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Originally published on February 11, 2014 6:56 pm

In inner cities and poor rural areas across the country, public health advocates have been working hard to turn around food deserts — neighborhoods where fresh produce is scarce, and greasy fast food abounds. In many cases, they're converting dingy, cramped corner markets into lighter, brighter venues that offer fresh fruits and vegetables. In some cases, they're building brand new stores.

"The presumption is, if you build a store, people are going to come," says Stephen Matthews, professor in the departments of sociology, anthropology and demography at Penn State University. To check that notion, he and colleagues from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine recently surveyed residents of one low-income community in Philadelphia before and after the opening of a glistening new supermarket brimming with fresh produce.

What they're finding, Matthews says, is a bit surprising: "We don't find any difference at all. ... We see no effect of the store on fruit and vegetable consumption."

Now, to be fair, the time was short. The store was only open for six months before residents were surveyed. Matthews says most residents knew that the store was there and that it offered healthy food. But only 26 percent said it was their regular "go to" market. And, as might be expected, those who lived close to the store shopped there most regularly.

Matthews says the findings dovetail with other work, and simply point to the obvious: Lots more intervention is needed to change behavior. For one thing, we're all used to routine, and many of us will just keep shopping where we've been shopping, even if a newer, more convenient and bountiful store moves in.

Alex Ortega, a public health researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, agrees that providing access to nutritious food is only the first step.

"The next part of the intervention is to create demand," he says, "so the community wants to come to the store and buy healthy fruits and vegetables and go home and prepare those foods in a healthy way, without lots of fat, salt or sugar."

Ortega directs a UCLA project that converts corner stores into hubs of healthy fare in low-income neighborhoods of East Los Angeles. He and colleagues work with community leaders and local high school students to help create that demand for nutritious food. Posters and signs promoting fresh fruits and vegetables hang in corner stores, such as the Euclid Market in Boyle Heights, and at bus stops. There are nutrition education classes in local schools, and cooking classes in the stores themselves.

"I had a mother who approached me to tell me she had learned a lot from prior cooking demonstrations about healthy eating," he says, "and, because of what she learned about nutrition and about reducing saturated fats and sodium, and increasing fiber intake in her diet, she lost over 20 pounds. And her daughter lost 10 pounds." This is a really important achievement, he notes, in an area struggling with obesity and all its related health problems, including diabetes.

The jury's still out on whether these conversions of corner stores are actually changing people's diets and health. The evidence is still being collected. But the hope, of course, Ortega says, is that creating demand for healthy food, as well as improving access, will make a difference in what residents eat — and, ultimately, in their weight and health.

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Transcript

RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:

It's MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And I'm Steve Inskeep, good morning.

In Your Health on this Monday, we'll talk about treating severe asthma without medication. First: How to increase access to healthy food in low income neighborhoods. You may have heard of food deserts, those areas where nutritious food can be hard to find but fast food may be plentiful. In recent years, there's been an effort to build better stores in those neighborhoods.

But as NPR's Patti Neighmond report, a new study suggests that just building stores may not be enough.

PATTI NEIGHMOND, BYLINE: There's a glistening new supermarket in a low income neighborhood in Philadelphia. It's in a community that used to be a food desert. But today, with over 45,000 square feet, the new store brims with healthy choices including lots of fresh fruits and vegetables.

But researchers wanted to know if people actually shopped there.

STEPHEN MATTHEWS: The presumption is that if you build a store that people are going to come.

NEIGHMOND: Stephen Matthews is a professor at Penn State University. He surveyed residents of the community before and after the store opened, and what he found was something of a surprise.

MATTHEWS: We don't find any difference at all. The fruit and vegetable consumption patterns both before and after the store opened were similar. We see no effect of the store on fruit and vegetable consumption.

NEIGHMOND: Now, to be fair, the time was short. The store was only open six months before residents were surveyed. Matthews says most knew the store was there and that it offered healthy food. But only 26 percent said it was their regular go-to market.

MATTHEWS: There's many other things have to accompany that. It can't just be: We build it they're going to come. It has to be paralleled with other kinds of interventions that perhaps are more targeted both at the store or the community or individuals.

NEIGHMOND: Matthews says building the store is just the first step. What needs to happen next is something that's actually happening in many states across the country. Take this corner store in East Los Angeles.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Foreign language spoken)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: (Foreign language spoken)

NEIGHMOND: The Euclid Market is part of a public health research project at UCLA that converts corner stores into hubs of healthy food. And here, UCLA public health researcher Alex Ortega says they're doing a lot more than just converting the store.

NEIGHMOND: Cooking classes are actually inside or just outside in front of the stores. Cooking class is only part of the project's reach. High school students learn about nutrition. Posters, touting the benefits of fresh healthy food, hang in the stores on billboards and at bus stops.

Ortega says nutrition education is critical because without healthy options, many residents never really learned how to prepare healthy meals.

ORTEGA: I had a mother who approached me to tell me that she had learned a lot from the cooking demonstration about healthy eating and that because of what she learned about nutrition and about reducing saturated fats, sodium, increasing fiber intake in her diets, she lost 20 pounds and her daughter lost over 10 pounds.

NEIGHMOND: An important achievement in an area rife with obesity and all of its related health problems including diabetes. Data is still being collected at the UCLA Corner Store Project. But the hope, says Ortega, is that creating demand for healthy food, along with access, will make the difference in what residents eat and ultimately in their weight and health.